Alerts

New York, March 22, 2002—The Venezuelan state news agency has sparked widespread furor by accusing three local independent journalists of involvement in an alleged global drug trafficking conspiracy controlled by international banks and political leaders from developed countries.

On March 13, the state information agency Venpres published an opinion piece on its Web site (http://www.venpres.gov.ve) under the byline of J. Valverde, which appears to be a pseudonym.

New York, March 20, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by increasing state restrictions on the press in Jordan, including the detention of some journalists and the harassment of others by security agents.

On March 17, a State Security Court prosecutor imposed a 15-day detention on Hashem Khalidi, editor of the weekly newspaper Al-Bilad. Khalidi is being investigated on charges of publishing "false information" and harming the "honor or reputation of the government and its officials."

New York, March 19, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned about two recent crippling libel judgments against the satirical weekly Feral Tribune.

The judgments were issued in two separate libel suits filed by Marica Mestrovic, the daughter of a famous Croatian sculptor, and Zeljko Olujic, an attorney and former ally of the late president Franjo Tudjman.

New York, March 19, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the recent detention of Shyam Shrestha, editor of the leftist monthly Mulyankan.

On March 16, authorities detained Shrestha at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. Shrestha was on his way to New Delhi, India, to take part in a conference on the current conflict between Maoist rebels and the Nepalese government, local sources said.

New York, March 18, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today called on Israel to provide a full accounting of a series of incidents in which a journalist was killed and several others were shot at during the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) large-scale military operation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip last week.

"The attempts now under way to achieve a cease-fire provide an opportune time for the Israeli authorities to investigate incidents that left one journalist dead and put several others in life-threatening situations," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "Covering conflict is an inherently dangerous business, but the IDF must exercise maximum restraint to avoid further harm to journalists reporting on this important news story."

March 15, 2002—In his first major act since his controversial reelection, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe today signed into law the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill.

The new law requires all journalists in Zimbabwe to be licensed by a new Media and Information Commission. Under the law, only citizens or permanent residents can be accredited as journalists, although foreigners can be accredited for an unspecified "limited" period.

New York, March 14, 2002—An independent Cuban journalist is recuperating at home after suffering a brutal assault by local police earlier this month, CPJ has learned. Two other journalists who protested the attack remain in detention.

Around 11:30 a.m. on March 4, CubaPress correspondent Jesús Álvarez Castillo was covering a demonstration by the human rights organization Fundación Cubana de Derechos Humanos (FCDH) in the city of Ciego de Ávila when police applied a chokehold to the journalist, injuring his neck.

New York, March 13, 2002—CPJ is shocked and saddened by the death of Italian free-lance photographer Raffaele Ciriello, who was killed this morning by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to press reports and eyewitness testimony.

Ciriello, who was on assignment for the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, is the first foreign journalist killed while covering the current Palestinian uprising, which began in September 2000.

New York, March 13, 2002—Natalya Skryl, a business reporter working for the Nashe Vremya newspaper in the city of Rostov-on-Don in southwestern Russia, died on March 9 from head injuries sustained during an attack the night before, according to local press reports.

Skryl, 29, reported on local business issues for a newspaper owned by Rostov regional authorities.

Just before her death, the journalist was investigating an ongoing struggle for the control of Tagmet, a local metallurgical plant. Nashe Vremya editor-in-chief Vera Yuzhanskaya believes that Skryl's death was related to her professional activities, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

New York, March 12, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned that Israeli forces opened fire on a hotel housing numerous journalists near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

In the early morning hours of March 12, Israeli forces directed heavy machine gun fire at the City Inn hotel, from which some 30 to 40 reporters and cameramen, most of them representing western media outlets, were filming an Israeli army operation against the nearby al-Amari refugee camp.